Moreno 1

Arely Moreno

Prof. Macias

English 105B-08

12/3/19

Ready Player One, Fix the Characters Please

There are so many differences between the book of Ready Player One by Cline and the

movie directed by Spielberg. In my opinion, the movie was 10 times better because honestly, I

am a visual learner and by me watching the movie has helped me understand it more. The movie

and the book make a lot of 80’s references to pop culture. The most significant changes I noticed

from the book to the movie is how Art3mis is and how her character is. The way her personality

was and the same for Parzival how his character was portrayed in the movie. The movie has

different outstanding moments but one that really caught my attention is how Art3mis and

Parzival meet each other in the book they meet until the end and in the movie they meet in the

middle/beginning my point is what was the important thing to Spielberg was it not them meeting

each other but it was getting the keys and winning James Halliday’s fortune. The theme of this

book and movie was perseverance. I am analyzing the movie and the book by exploring the

rhetorical choices that are used to describe Art3mis and Parzival from the big reveal.

The difference from the book to the movie that caught my attention was that Art3mis is

different in the book, but when it comes to the point of the movie, I did not expect that she

looked like that. I expected Samantha and Art3mis to have black hair, tall, and with freckles. In

the book the weight for Art3mis supposedly she was Rubenesque and then in the movie she came

out skinny. In the book, Cline focused the first chapters with Wade and his school and in the

movie, Spielberg dives right into the OASIS. Some other things that changed in the movie is the
 Moreno 2

way how the copper, jade key is won to get to the Easter egg. I expected that Art3mis was going

to try to be more tough and whatever about Parzival but instead she was being flirty with him

and seducing him and that made me realize that she was not like that in the book.

In the book and in the movie, we can see that a lot of it is being related to the pop culture

of the 80’s and all the references that are made by analyzing ethos the author makes references to

this time of the year which is the 80’s. Ready Player One had like this time machine going back

to the 80’s and correlate it all to the movie. The author and the director make all these references

about the 80’s because it wants to catch even more attention and because the time were Wade is

living, in which is the year 2045 the world at that time the world is pretty unpleasant and it is just

bad and Spielberg just wanted to make us remember all the great times from the 80’s. These pop

culture references fall into the category of symbolism, imagery, and allegory. Some of these

references pop up because it goes to the scene that is happening, for example when Art3mis and

Parzival start to dance he puts an 80’s song. Also, when Wade watches the “Whiz Kids” which

he says that it is a show about a teenager who uses computer skills to hack and solve things. That

reference was meant for the book we read ready player one he was talking about himself. I think

Spielberg added all these moments referencing the 80’s because the contest of finding the egg

and Halliday’s fortune is about the 80’s but some things in the OASIS are not all the 80’s.

The emotion in the movie versus the book is very different and the movie definitely had

more emotions than the book. In the movie, some emotions were love, happiness, stress but in

the end, everyone came out winning. Having all these 80’s reference correlates to the movie

because the way they dress, for example the party scene where Parzival dressed up all 80’s

themed and danced an 80’s song with Art3mis just brings up more attention to the movie and

makes geeks and 80’s fans watch this movie and be interested in it like for example me I love
 Moreno 3

80’s music. By analyzing Pathos we can see how the author and the director use emotion

differently. For example, in the book the author uses emotion to target the audience to make

Parzival/ Wade and Art3mis/ Samantha seems differently from the book then to the movie.

However, in the movie the author uses this audience to focus more on the big hunt of the egg

than instead of the big reveal. For me the 80’s were the best years that could ever exist even

though I was not born at that time, but it was the era where all the great music started to exist for

example, I love Michael Jackson he is the king of pop. It was actually weird that this movie did

not include Michael Jackson songs, but it was still better than the book in my opinion. Another

big 80’s scene that takes place in the movie is when the two big characters go on their first date

which it correlates back to the movie called “The Shinning”. A big part of the 80’s did really

show off in part of this movie and that was the whole point having geeks remember all the good

times. As pop culture continues to grow even more and overtake the culture on its own it is still

great to remember all the good times and that the 80’s should never be forgotten.

The main audience for this book and movie Cline and Spielberg was trying to aim for

teens that prefer reading and watching movies about video games and fantasy more than

anything else. Spielberg’s intentions in the movie were not the same for Cline. Another intended

audience is gamers and geeks from the 1980’s the ones that play video games all day and

understand the world of games. Spielberg was just trying to throw everything at once to us in the

movie for the reveal of Art3mis and Parzival because for Cline his intentions was anticipation

and suspense in making us wait for the reveal of the big two characters. The film is big known

and called the ultimate geek out and nostalgia ride since all of the “nerdy” people enjoy all thse

types of movies.
 Moreno 2

Cline in the book for Art3mis and Parzival he was trying to make us wait and anticipate

the grand reveal of both of them in the real world. Spielberg he just probably thought to himself

that it would be better for us in the movie to get familiar with the characters and see them right

away. Spielberg also probably thought to himself if I wait until the end to make the characters

see themselves in the real world I would have to make another movie about it so he decided to do

it in the beginning/middle them meeting each other in the movie for Spielberg was just a basic

moment I really believe he was focused on something more important other than them meeting

each other. Cline wanted that adventurous ending of them kissing for the first time at the end of

the book.

Work cited:

Steven Spielberg director Ready Player One. Performances by Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben

Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, and Mark Rylance, Warner Bros., 2018

Covino, William, and Jolliffe, David, "What Is Rhetoric?" Rhetoric: Concepts, Definitions, Boundaries.

Ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1995. 3-26. Print.

Cline, Ernest, Ready Player One, New York, Crown Publishing Group, 2012
Moreno 3